Tsukiko often wondered how she found herself in odd situations like these. I mean, really, how often do you find a naked woman in your brother's bedroom? Okay, that might be a little more common if you're brother's say, married, or older and did... i that /i ... But...Shotatsu was only nine years old. Much too young for doing that sort of thing. And besides, Shotatsu himself was nowhere in sight. There was that loudmouth in orange, and two younger kids but Shotatsu himself was -

'POOF'

...the naked woman.

"What. The. Hell."

"Uh, hey sis!" Shotatsu said with a high-pitched, false cheeriness.

And then, all of a sudden, there was a flurry of movement all around Tsukiko as the four boys rushed to leave the bedroom. It didn't take long for her to regain her senses and begin chasing after them. She didn't exactly know why she was chasing him, but at the moment it seemed like the right thing to do. Maybe this little chase would get the image of her brother as a naked woman out of her head. Damn him for getting an image like that stuck in her head! She felt like banging her head against a wall to rid herself of it.

"No, you guys wait up!"

One of Tsukiko's downfalls was that she wasn't the fastest person. But luckily for her, neither was her brother. Even luckier, Shotatsu had tripped into the boy in orange, sending them both to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. By the time she had run the length of the short hallway, the two were still trying to untangle themselves. The other two boys left the apartment in a hurry, slamming the door loudly along with them.

"Aw, dammit! Get your hand off of my- ow! Watch where you're sticking that! Ow ow ow ow!"

If Tsukiko had heard that under any other circumstances, she most likely would have stopped to marvel out how... wrong that sounded. But as it was, she was more interested in finding out just what her brother had been doing. They had yet to notice her standing no more than two feet away, and while they were distracted Tsukiko took the time to lock the door. When she returned to the two, they still had not detached themselves from each other.

"Okay, mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

--Ten Minutes Later

----------------------

-----------------

------------

-------

"O...kay... You were learning the Sexy technique from this kid," she jabbed a thumb in Naruto's direction, "but were too embarrassed to learn it outside somewhere, where anybody could see you. Wow, that's..."

Shotatsu? Wanting to learn a technique like that? It seemed so... unreal. The Shotatsu that Tsukiko knew would never have been interested in something like that. Not yet, at least. Wasn't he the one that was always telling her off for doing perverted things like this?

"You!" Tsukiko turned to point accusingly at Naruto, while she continued in a dramatic voice, "This is your fault! You've corrupted poor, little Shotatsu's mind!"

"Eh heh..."

"I don't know if I should be proud of Shotatsu's newfound...pervertedness, or grossed out," she added thoughtfully. Shotatsu made a face at her, all the while looking a tad nervous.

"You're... not going to say anything to mom, are you?"

Tsukiko gave him a long, calculating look. Well, she could tell mom and get him back for the rice incident. She didn't know how her mom would react, or if Shotatsu would get into any trouble at all. Judging by his previously noted nervousness, he seemed to have the idea that he would. That, or he just did want to face anymore embarrassment from having anyone find out about his newly-learned jutsu. Tsukiko herself never got in trouble for her perverted tendencies, unless she went way out of line – was this considered going out of line? She didn't know.

"No, but only on one condition," Tsukiko decided seriously. She raised a single finger to indicate 'one'. Then, she used that same finger to point at Naruto, all the while still looking at Shotatsu. "You have to get him to teach me that technique, too."

Shotatsu deadpanned. "You're kidding."

"Nope!"

Sigh.

"And for a minute there I thought you could actually be serious..."

"Hmph," Tsukiko crossed her arms and looked away from him, though she couldn't help but smile, if only a little. It almost felt like old times, sitting here and talking with Shotatsu like this. She cracked open an eye to look at Naruto, who she had yet to actually be introduced to. "So, who are you, anyway?"

A grin spread across his face. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki! The next Hokage!"

Blinking, Tsukiko was unsure if she should take his loud introduction as being egotistical, or just really happy.

"My name's Tsukiko Akihana, the next..." she stopped to consider her next words, "well, the next something. I don't know what."

Insert sweatdrops here, from both Naruto and Shotatsu.

"So, are you gonna teach me that jutsu or not?"

hr

"Hey, Tsukiko! Over here!"

At the call of her name, Tsukiko turned her attention to the boy sitting in the far corner of the room. He waved at her, beckoning her over.

"Hey Shiko," she said tiredly, stifling a yawn as she shuffled over to him. Her half-lidded eyes were glazed over, her posture slacking. "It's too early to be up."

"Didn't get much sleep I take it?"

"No," she fell into the seat next to her male friend, and rested her head on her now folded arms. "I was up late last night."

"'Up late', eh? Doing what?"

"...learning."

Looking at the weird glint in Tsukiko's eyes, Shiko wasn't sure if he wanted to know, so he didn't bother asking. "Yeah... Anyway, you nervous at all?"

"Why would I be?"

Shiko grinned. "This is your first time, right? I've already done this before, I know exactly what's going to be happening. You have no clue. Fear of the unknown, you know?"

"But you failed the first time, didn't you? So you couldn't have done it very well, either..."

Shiko glared, but before he could give any sort of response, Iruka-sensei walked into the classroom.

"Congratulations!" Iruka positioned himself in front of his desk and the six students occupying the classroom. "I know most of you have already heard my little congratulatory speech before, so I'll skip that and get straight to announcing the teams. Team 5 will consist of Tsukiko Akihana, Shiko Takiyana, and Kayu Yamamoto."

"Same team! Lucky, huh?"

A nod and a smile were his replies. Shiko was the only person of the six passing students she knew, so she was hoping that she would be placed on a team with him.

"Hello." Both Shiko and Tsukiko turned in their seats. A girl, short in height with auburn hair, smiled kindly at them. She had a calm atmosphere about her. "I'm Kayu, your teammate."

She took a seat at the desk next to Tsukiko, who took the time to introduce herself.

"Hey! I'm Tsukiko, and this is Shiko," she pointed over her shoulder to the male. Kayu giggled lightly.

"I figured as much. It's nice to meet you."

"You too," Shiko replied from behind Tsukiko.

"- okay! Now that the teams have been announced, you can meet your sensei!" At the sound of the classroom door sliding open, the three turned their heads to look at the two Jounin who came through.

One was a tall female, with dirty blonde hair and large, innocent brown eyes. Her eyes scanned over the six students quickly, as if she'd be able to tell which would be her students just by looking at them. The other, a male with dark raven hair and eyes to match, nodded in greeting

"Team 6?" The man said stiffly, and the other three new genin stood up to follow him out of the room.

The woman turned to look at the members of team 5, smiling broadly in a way that reminded Tsukiko of Naruto. "So I guess that means you guys are team 5?" Her eyes flickered to each of their faces, pausing briefly. Without waiting for a reply, she turned to Iruka. "You mind if we stay here for a little while?"

"Not at all, I was just about to leave anyway." He smiled, and after waving goodbye to the three students exited the room, shutting the door behind him.

The woman walked over to Iruka's desk, took a seat on top of it, and then turned back to team 5.

"Okay, let's get some basic introductions over with, and then we can go out for lunch to get to know each other better. That sound okay to you guys?"

"That depends," Shiko narrowed his eyes at her, not unkindly. "Are you paying?"

She let out a short bark of laughter before nodding. "Of course. Anyway, my name's Shizuka Watajiyo." Shizuka tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Let's see... I'm 24 years old, a former ANBU, and I like kids. Or I wouldn't be leading a team, would I? Okay, the girl on my left, you next."

"Alright," Kayu nodded, "My name is Kayu Yamamoto. I'm 12 years old, and I like kids, too. I have two little brothers and one younger sister, who I love very much. Um... my favorite animals are rabbits."

"Okay! I'll go next!" Shiko declared soon after. "My name's Shiko Takiyana, and I'm 12 years old. My favorite types of jutsu are taijutsu and genjutsu. I like training with my older brother. He's awesome! He was just promoted to ANBU not too long ago. I like messing around with his katana, too. Also-"

"I said brief introductions," Shizuka raised a hand to cut him off. "What you said is enough already. The last one, you're up."

"My name's Tsukiko Akihana," she began, but paused for a moment. A small look of realization passed across her face. "Hey! Has anyone noticed Shiko's name sort of rhymes with mine? Tsukiko Akihana, Shiko Takiyana? That's weird."

"Weren't you really tired a minute ago?"

Looking over at him, Tsukiko frowned at him for interrupting her. "I like the ramen at Ichiraku's, though I prefer somen noodles. I have a younger brother. Uh..." She wracked her brain for something else to say about herself. "And I just moved to Konoha recently from Intai, a shinobi retirement village."

Jumping off of the desk, Shizuka smiled. "Okay! Now that that's over, let's go eat. Onward, march!"

"Hey! Tsukiko!"

Tsukiko's attention was drawn to the blonde waving frantically at her. He was sitting next to four other people. Only one of them was curious enough to turn completely around to see who Naruto was calling for. She Tsukiko and the rest of team 5 were heading towards Ichiraku's, as the group had decided to go to there for lunch.

"You know him?"

Glancing up at her sensei, she nodded. "Yeah, just met him last night."

"So that's what – or maybe who? - you were doing last night!"

Almost immediately, Tsukiko's face became a delicate shade of pink, and her eyes widened comically.

She spun her head around to look at Shiko.

"It's not like that! I just met him! Geez, and I thought I was a pervert!"

Without giving any time for him to reply, she sped up, leaving a giggling Kayu and a laughing Shizuka and Shiko behind.

"Hey, why's your face red?" Tsukiko took a seat next to Naruto, and shrugged while she ordered a miso ramen.

"Aw man! Why'd you have to call her over, Naruto?"

At the sound of her brother's voice, Tsukiko turned her head to look towards where she had heard him. He was sitting on the other side of Naruto, a frown on his face.

"It's bad enough that I have to deal with her at home!"

"I love you too, Sho, I really do," she muttered sarcastically.

"Why'd you leave us behind like that?" Someone took the seat to Tsukiko's left, and two other people sat to his left.

"I'm not answering that," she crossed her arms across her chest, purposely avoiding looking at Shiko.

Shizuka recognized the blonde – most adults in the village did. From what she knew, he was nothing more than a hyperactive prankster, and generally a pretty nice kid, if a little obnoxious. And of course, she recognized one of the people he was with – Uchiha Sasuke. The large Uchiha clan symbol on the back of his shirt wasn't hard to miss. The younger boy between those two genin, and the girl to the Uchiha's were the ones she didn't recognize. And finally, the man on the far left was one she knew fairly well. He looked up from the book he was reading to meet her gaze. Her eyes narrowed at him.

Kakashi Hatake...'

"Shizuka-sensei?" Kayu said softly from beside her, and she broke eye contact with Kakashi. Shizuka shook her head at her and smiled.

"Care to introduce us to your friend?" Shizuka suggested, turning away from Kayu's questioning gaze.

"Sure," she leaned back in her seat to give her sensei and teammates a clear view of Naruto. "This is Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage. To his left is my little brother Shotatsu. And, uh..." She paused, and looked at Naruto to introduce the other three people sitting with him.

"These are my teammates Sasuke," he didn't sound quite as enthusiastic as he usually did when he spoke the boy's name, "and Sakura. And next to her is Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired jounin gave a "Yo" in greeting, but didn't look away from his book.

"It's nice to meet you," Sakura smiled politely.

Tsukiko returned the smile, and turned in her seat so that she could point out and introduce her team. When she saw the glare set on Shiko's face, her smiled faltered. "Shiko?"

Ignoring her, he nodded towards Sasuke. "You're that show-off Uchiha from the Academy!"

Said Uchiha turned his head to meet Shiko's glare. "...who are you?"

Shiko's mouth opened slightly in shock, "Y-you don't even remember who I am?"

Sasuke made a noise that sounded something like 'hn' before turning away.

"...anyway, this is Shiko, next to him is Kayu, and then that's Shizuka-sensei," she pointed to each of them in turn.

"Hello," Kayu greeted quietly, while Shiko got over his shock. He grumbled a hello as well, and turned to his bowl of ramen which just arrived.

"Hello Shizuka," Kakashi turned a page in his book, his visible eye arching up.

"Don't 'Hello Shizuka' me, asshole," she glared at him. Team 5 exchanged glances. What happened to their cheery sensei from moments before?

"Sure," the jounin replied, just as casually as before, unfazed by her animosity.

She growled softly, glaring at him one last time before turning to her own bowl of ramen, muttering to herself. "Damn him anyway..."

"Er, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura addressed the older man, who didn't give her any reply.

At the same time, Kayu softly questioned Shizuka again with a, "Shizuka-sensei?"

Naruto leaned over, bumping shoulders with Tsukiko to get her attention. "Hey, why doesn't your sensei like my sensei? Do they know each other or something?"

She leaned in as well, whispering conspiratorially. "Seems like it. I don't why she doesn't like him, though. And Naruto? Your breath smells."

With that, she leaned away from them and started to eat her ramen, which was already beginning to grow cold.

Naruto blinked a few times, his cheeks a light pink. He raised a cupped hand to his mouth and checked his breath.

"Hey, what were you two talking about?" Shiko leaned forward so he could look at the two suspiciously.

"My breath doesn't stink!"

Tsukiko just snickered and stuffed some more ramen into her mouth.